The Bureau and the Kingdom
by ZankouHoshizora
Summary: A year after the events of Midchildan Music. In a remote corner of Bureau territory, ships begin disappearing without so much as a trace. With the population at large unaware of the danger, the explorations of a former Sergeant and his Vocaloid Device take them into contested territory... into a world dominated by a dark Kingdom.
1. Prelude: Silver Wings

**Author's Note:** It's long since time I got off my tail end and started doing something with the stories sitting around on my computer.

So yeah! After bringing Kaito, Meiko, and Miku into the Nanoha universe as Device AIs (sort of) in Midchildan Music, I figured the next logical step would be Version 2, Code 02, the Kagamine twins. And given how much I enjoy Servant of Evil and Daughter of Evil, writing it as an Evils Kingdom story was pretty much inevitable. Needless to say, this is a sequel to Midchildan Music, so it might get a little interesting if you're reading this without having read that story. I'd like to believe it'll still be understandable, but time will tell.

Before we get to the story itself, there is one administrative note I'm going to toss in here, and that is that I'm going to start trying to post regular updates. Previously, I've been reluctant to commit to any hard deadlines. I've always been worried that I'll end up procrastinating and then forced into either throwing something sub-par together at the last minute or missing the deadline entirely. Given my track record, though, it does seem that unless I set a regular schedule for myself, I won't post anything at all. And as long as I've been thinking that I should make it a resolution for the new year to write more, this seems like a decent way to go about it.

I have a surprisingly substantial portion of this already written, so for the moment I'll be posting updates to it on a biweekly schedule, once every other Monday, starting today.

That should cover the fiddly details. I think it's about time we got to the story.

* * *

It was surprisingly quiet on the bridge of the Time-Space Administration Bureau battlecruiser _Arcadia_. Aside from the low thrum of the ship's reactor driving it through dimensional space, in fact, the bridge was silent. Techs stared at their consoles with the bored air of men and women who expected no trouble. And the captain's chair was empty; rather than the captain of the vessel, a lowly lieutenant served as officer of the deck, watching the bridge. It was mid watch, after all. Night may mean a lot less in the middle of the dimensional sea with no sun by which to judge night or day, but even so, the captain had to sleep sometime.

And why not now? The arrowhead-shaped LS-class battlecruiser was in the middle of a routine transit, from Bureau headquarters to one of the regional bases. Once they arrived, the battlecruiser on station there could be rotated back to Midchilda for maintenance and to give its crew at least a little time off. And then the _Arcadia_ could assume the role of "senior" ship on station, giving the Bureau staff at the base more options for dealing with crises, or at least as many options as they had to begin with. Well, in theory that would be the _Arcadia_'s role. More likely… there'd probably be the occasional flag-waving trip to some administered world or another within the base's sphere of authority, and probably endless dinner opportunities with local authorities and the base's senior staff. Sure, every senior enforcer and officer aboard the _Arcadia_ dreamed of being the next Chrono or the next Lindy, whose careers gained a major boost from being the men and women on the scene when a crisis actually happened. But the Time-Space Administration Bureau's control over almost all of known space wasn't held together by that kind of heroism. Rather, it was held together by the mere presence of the main branch's powerful inter-dimensional fleet.

When a crisis did break out, perhaps it'd take a battlecruiser to deal with it. But then again, maybe not. After all, "crisis" almost always meant a new and unusual Lost Logia. It was rare enough to even find one of those, much less one that posed a credible threat to an entire ship. Anything that did come up would be for the ship's Marines (and for the enforcers who commanded them) to deal with, which they would no doubt do with all of the competence and skill that got them berths on the _Arcadia_ in the first place. There was all of one Lost Logia in ten thousand that would get past them. And the idea that another person would actively threaten the _Arcadia_? That was even more unreasonable. Not even the Saint's Cradle from the days of the Belkan Saint King had managed to face down the Bureau fleet!

For all of these reasons, when the sensor tech's console pinged, he reacted with something considerably less than rapid attention. Lazily surveying the information presented, he turned up to the lieutenant to report. "Sir, we're seeing some unusual fluctuations on the sensors at extreme range."

"What kind of fluctuations?" said officer snapped back. He was well aware of the reasons why his bridge crew should be overconfident or less than attentive, and it was a source of continual irritation for him to be unable to break them out of that rut.

The sensor tech shrugged. "Hard to say, sir. We must have just brought them within range. From what little I can tell, though, it's consistent with a very high level of magical power."

"CIC confirms that, sir," came another report, this time over the intercom from the ship's combat information center. "This is what we'd see from an operational magical reactor, like the one powering this ship. To pick it up at this range, though…? The power levels on that thing must be immense - several times our own."

The lieutenant's back straightened slightly. "What's over there?" he asked intensely.

"From our charts…" the young woman manning her station in the combat information center called up those charts, fingers flying across her keyboard. "Unadministered world number three hundred and seventeen. Given that we've seen no movement from the detected fluctuations, I'm calling it highly likely that we're looking at a ground-based power station."

And just like that, calm settled over the bridge. Or at least over most of it: the sensor tech leaned back in his chair, and the helm and tactical stations relaxed noticeably. Even in the combat information center, there was a noticeable sight of relief, of tension eased. Anomaly detected, situation analyzed, threat negative, job done.

Meanwhile, the lieutenant tapped away at a console on his chair. Unlike the rest of the bridge crew, this wasn't the first time he had traveled from Bureau headquarters to this particular regional base. He was on his second tour of duty with the Bureau's navy, and the light cruiser he had served on previously had made the exact same trip. Twice, even. Once out, and once back. The sheer tedium of that trip might have dulled him to it, had he been less dedicated to his job. Now, though, it was an asset - for this was the first time in three passes that anything like a ground-based magical power station had ever been detected.

"CIC, confirm," he began, surveying the information he had called up. "I'm reading the data for three-seventeen, and have them at tech level… 2-null."

At that last word, everyone on the bridge woke up again. As part of the Bureau's records, every world they encountered had a data file. For many such worlds, that file was minimal at best, summarizing basic technology present on the world and otherwise giving anyone who might have to operate there some idea of what they were getting into. A key part of that, rolled into the tech level, was whether or not the world's inhabitants were aware of magic. Some were; most of those had either become fully administered worlds or had self-destructed. A few others were in the process of reaching the point where the Bureau would reach out to them. The number of worlds, however, that had reached that point and refused? That could be counted on one hand.

And the Lieutenant, with one quick word, had just identified unadministered world number three hundred and seventeen as not one of those. As a world without any knowledge of magic, much less the ability to build a power station rivaling any of the largest on Midchilda itself.

It took everyone a few precious seconds to fully process what that might mean. Into the shocked silence, the lieutenant spoke again. "Take us to Condition Two, and get the Captain up-"

His last word was cut off by a call from the sensor tech. "I have multiple unknown contacts approaching fast. Three distinct objects."

"Analysis indicates dimensional vessels," the woman manning the combat information center smoothly cut in. "Heavy cruisers, from what we can tell. Lighter than us, but not by much."

Without any further hesitation, the lieutenant brought his thumb down on the panic button. Alarms wailed throughout the ship - the general quarters alarm, forcibly wakening every single member of the _Arcadia_'s crew. "We are now at Condition One," he said almost calmly. He continued speaking as he toggled the intercom system to project his voice to the Captain's quarters. "Captain, I apologize for the rude awakening, but we need you on the bridge immediately."

* * *

The screen filled with a bright flare, momentarily blinding everyone on the bridge of the _Silent Lance_. With a muttered apology, one of the bridge techs re-calibrated the screen, damping down the brilliant light and giving the bridge crew a good look at the coruscating energy that was all that remained of the Time-Space Administration Bureau battlecruiser _Arcadia_.

It took a moment for the reality of the situation to sink in. Once it had, though, cheers broke out on the bridge. The victorious crew gave themselves over, however briefly, to the nervous excitement of having survived a fight to the death. And the captain of the _Silent Lance_ let the display continue for at least ten seconds before he cut back in.

"Here, now!" he yelled out in rebuke. "Is this really what I've come to expect from Her Majesty's crew? And with your High Admiral on the bridge with us, no less!" The cheering cut off instantly, giving the captain a chance to turn to said admiral and make himself heard. "My apologies for the unseemly display, Admiral Avadonia."

The man the captain turned to was tall and broad, with a full head of brown hair and an easygoing expression. High Admiral Leonheart Avadonia smiled broadly in response to the captain's apology. "It comes as little surprise, Captain, now doesn't it? Let them blow off a little steam; they've earned it." In response to that rolling, deep voice, the bridge crew smiled broadly, basking in the praise. Even the captain couldn't resist smiling slightly as Admiral Avadonia continued, "It speaks well of you and your men, Captain, that their first real operation should go this well. Although we did lose a ship…"

As he spoke, every eye turned back to the screen, to where the shattered remains of one of their cruisers was clearly displayed next to the fading light from the _Arcadia_'s explosion. "Nevertheless, all of you performed your duties admirably, even in the face of an actual warship, rather than a merchant vessel. Don't forget, though," his voice hardened noticeably, "that this marks the beginning of the end. The next Bureau vessel won't come in so unprepared, and I expect that you will all take the lessons we've learned from this fight and be ready for the next when it comes."

"Yes, sir!" the captain replied sharply, with consummate professionalism.

Admiral Avandonia nodded. "Then I'll retire to my quarters. Take us home, Captain." With one further acknowledgment from the _Silent Lance_'s captain, he departed the bridge, making for the flag quarters. Outwardly, there was little difference between the _Lance_ and her consorts, however different the ships were from "normal" dimensional vessels or from the Bureau's warships. Unlike the _Silent Lance_'s now single accompanying cruiser, though, she was designed from the beginning to be a flagship, and so possessed such amenities as living space for flag officers and other high-ranking officials. Along with a truly frightening degree of ostentatious decoration; Leonheart sighed heavily as the bare metal of a warship's corridor gave way to the thickly padded carpeting of what even he referred to scornfully as 'aristocrat country'. As the door in front of him opened, though, he smoothed his expression back to indifference and entered his quarters.

Well, not entirely his quarters. In point of fact, the flag officers' quarters aboard the _Silent Lance_ were an entire suite of rooms, enough to accommodate several people. The common room just inside the door was thus not entirely 'his', but shared among all of the flag officers. Or whatever guests said officers had along for the ride, as was the case on this particular trip. Said guest was waiting in the common room: a young man, young enough to be Leonheart's son. He looked up as the door opened, acknowledging Leonheart's return. "It went well, then?" he said quietly.

"Well enough, Allen." Leonheart replied shortly, looking over the boy with whom he was sharing the over-decorated flag quarters. Allen Avadonia (or occasionally just 'Len', although that nickname was never used within his hearing) was nominally Leonheart's son, although obviously an adoptive one. Where Leonheart was broad and powerful, Allen was a small, slight person, still a teenager. Rumors had it that he was fourteen, although without his parents around, no one was quite sure. Where Leonheart was outgoing and boisterous, Allen was cool and reserved.

And while it had taken Leonheart years of hard work and effort to rise to command the palace guard, Allen had… pretty much just appeared a few months ago as the chief personal servant of the princess, in the closest confidences of the princess herself. There were those who whispered that there were too many unanswered questions about how suddenly he had appeared or how oddly similar he was to the princess, but when the last surviving member of the kingdom's royal household made her opinion clear on the matter, whispers weren't going to cut it. Oh, sure, nominally Allen needed a guardian - in some ways, so did the princess. Either way, Leonheart got the job of keeping an eye on Allen, along with a lot of other ones. After all, Allen wasn't the only sudden arrival in the royal court…

"Father, you're woolgathering again," Allen interrupted. "Is something the matter?"

"Oh, no," Leonheart replied easily. "I found it a little difficult to believe that this… Bureau? That they'd be so unprepared as to walk into that fight as casually as they did. And I'm not looking forward to the next time we have to fight them. That ship's main cannon was devastating." He stretched, sighing heavily as he walked over to the door leading to his personal bedroom. "I'd say it's about time for me to actually get some rest."

"But you're sure we can stand up to them?" Allen pressed him.

Leonheart looked back from the door. "Impossible as it would have been for me to believe six months ago… I think we can." With a smirk, he continued, "I guess I didn't know they existed six months ago, though."

Allen smiled as well, nodding in acknowledgment as Leonheart finally left the common room. He sat there in silence for nearly a minute, thinking. When he finally did speak, it was in a whisper intended for his ears alone.

"My sister will be pleased…"


	2. The Vocaloid We Love

**Author's Note: **All right then, time to really get this story going.

Honestly, I can't think of much else to say. There hasn't been much of a reaction yet to this story, so I'll just keep letting it speak for itself, I guess. I see no reason yet to adjust the update schedule, in either direction, so there should be another update to this by February 3rd.

I will note that wherever there are translations from existing material, usually for the sake of a line or two from an existing Vocaloids song, those are all my own translations.

And on that note, I'll add the usual disclaimer, that I make no claim to ownership of either Nanoha or its universe, the Vocaloids, or the music that's been made with the Vocaloids.

Let me know what you all think!

* * *

I stretched out and relaxed, enjoying my seat way up in the balcony of the theater. It still amazed me that they could fit all of this finery on a dimensional vessel, but then I guess the ship I was on was definitely bigger than any Bureau warship ever built. At the moment, most of that finery was going to waste - the theater was surprisingly empty, and most of the people that had elected to attend this particular show were down in the best seats, right in front of center stage. It spoke to how empty the theater was, really, that no one had to spread out more than that. Sure, people were kind of crowded in down there, and if it had been me I would have spread them out more and gotten more elbow room. Or, well, I would have skipped it entirely and gone for the balcony. Which is exactly what I did in the end.

Not that that bothered me. I didn't need to be close to the stage for this particular performance. I could hear the song a lot more clearly than anyone else in the house, for that matter. Or at least, I would. Once the singer for tonight's main event took the stage. What was keeping her?

_Miku? Is something the matter?_

Right, perhaps I should explain. Normally I wouldn't have bothered to come to a concert. I mean, it's just never been part of my interests. And it's not like I'd been present at any of the other events on this journey, and a lot of them had been much more widely publicized than this one. I'm a sergeant in the Time-Space Administration Bureau's ground forces. Or rather, I was; I guess it's been almost a year now since I left the Bureau, on… let's just say somewhat less than pleasant terms. Actually, I could put it this way: for the first month or so, I was constantly looking over my shoulder for any enforcers that might have been chasing after us. When you get caught up in something that (at least in my own oh-so-humble opinion) ranks barely one step below the JS incident in terms of severity, it tends to have a negative impact on your ability to spend time in Bureau-controlled space without trouble. And all of it has to do with my new Unison Device, perhaps one of the first artificially created ones, using a combination of Project Fate cloning and memory transfer techniques along with a new system of controlling magical energy.

Also known as Miku Hatsune, Vocaloid Version Two, code zero-one, and (apparently) one of the up-and-coming singers around. Given the reaction of the cruise ship's staff when they discovered that she was aboard their ship.

I tended to view her as a Unison Device first and foremost. I am, after all, a device technician. As far as that's concerned, I can say with some pride that I still am. Then again, when dealing with the advanced devices, it's kind of impossible not to recognize that they have a will of their own, with all of the hopes and desires that that might entail. In Miku's case, her personality is built around singing. In the eyes of her original developers, that was just a cover to conceal the fact that her singing was also the key to her ability to output staggering amounts of magical power, rivaling the most powerful mages… well, ever. That doesn't change the fact that Miku, herself, has that one overriding desire - to sing. These days, she knows that she is a device, that she is on some level a created weapon. To that young woman, though, she's a Vocaloid first and foremost.

I never did ask her where that name came from or what it actually means. I just call her a Vocaloid Device. It doesn't seem to bother her, and it satisfies my desire to acknowledge what she is.

Anyway, I digress. The Bureau is always a little twitchy about letting that level of power run around unsupervised, which is why I was kind of expecting the Bureau to come and recapture us after the debacle that her creation ended up causing. Which is why _I_ was a little twitchy when Miku wanted to start singing for a wider audience than just myself. But, to some surprise, it seems the Bureau's content to just let sleeping dogs lie. They took notice of it when we came a little more out into the open, especially when Miku started actually singing in public. They would have been fools not to, as far as I'm concerned. But beyond watching us, there's been nothing more. And as I realized the Bureau wasn't going to come down on us like the hammer of God for getting out and living a little more, I lost any reason to deny Miku what she wanted. Not that I really liked denying it to her, but there was a time when I thought we didn't have a choice if we were to live outside a research facility.

These days, though, when the cruise ship staff realized that they had Miku aboard, they practically fell over themselves to make a hole in the performance schedule for her. Looking at the sparse attendance, I have to wonder what all the fuss was about. Maybe it has something to do that Miku and I don't announce where we're going next. That much, she concedes to my paranoia. Even so, as long as she wanted to sing, the cruise ship was willing to make it happen, the passengers came out to listen to the performance, and the Bureau wasn't going to come and arrest us both, who was I to stand in the way?

At the moment, though, Miku wasn't on stage. Not only that, she hadn't responded to the question I had just asked of her… yet, anyway. Practically as I started to worry I felt that familiar tickle in the back of my head that I associated with her personality. As the primary partner through which Miku worked, occasionally there would be times when her personality and emotions would… echo, you could say, in my own mind. I still have no idea whether that's common for all Unison Devices or whether that's something particular to Miku and I, but for the moment I was happy enough that she was establishing contact at all.

_Yeah, everything__'s fine_. I relaxed even more as her voice echoed in my head. Mental communication was easy enough between skilled individuals; I had at least that much magical ability, and Miku had power to spare. _I guess I__'m just a little… anxious._

_You?_ I asked her in reply. _Usually you just seem to get out there and sing._

_I know!_ she shot back, a little panicky. _I think it__'s because I'm singing that one new song today._

_Right, right. The one that you did the lyrics for? _I confirmed. The one thing that Miku seemed completely incapable of was writing a song herself. I was fairly confident, given my knowledge of device programming, that it wasn't an issue with Miku's "software"… well, perhaps I should say it wasn't something that Miku was completely incapable of doing. But then, she wouldn't actually create the music for anything, and believe me I tried to persuade her (at least to try!) several times in those first few weeks. In the end, though, I managed to become at least passingly capable of creating music, and Miku took it from there.

Just recently, though, Miku expressed a desire to write the lyrics to a song herself. Well, why not, right?

_Yeah,_ Miku told me through the telepathic link. _I guess__… I don't know! It's kind of embarrassing to think about actually singing this!_

_Well,_ I pointed out with a slight smile on my face, _I__'m pretty sure the guy taking the stage is about to introduce you, so… I think you're out of time to worry._

Sure enough, the cruise ship's master of ceremonies for the theater stage was here for exactly the reason I had guessed. He went through all the standard introductions designed to whip up the audience - everything that I had heard plenty of times before. Kind of cliche, if you ask me. Not that anyone was, but whatever. Finally, though, he reached the point that we had all been waiting for. With a grand gesture off to the side of the stage, he called for the main event to start. And no matter how anxious Miku was, this wasn't something she was going to pass up. In a swirl of color, she took the stage.

As always, she was beautiful. Today she was dressed in a neat red jacket, a very fancy-looking one, with a frilly skirt, yellow bow tie, and a red ribbon in her hair. Rather than her typical twin tails, she had let her (unnaturally long) hair hang freely, cascading in a teal blue waterfall down her back. Black tights, red socks, and neat blue dancing shoes completed the outfit; she looked like she'd be perfectly at home on the floor of a king's ballroom.

_And aren__'t you glad I figured out how to reverse-engineer the system used to create a person's Barrier Jacket and turn it into an active spell that we could use to make new clothing for you?_ I teased her gently.

Even from the balcony high above, I could see her smile ever so slightly in response. Then the music started. I could see some of the audience reacting with surprise, looking around for the source of the instrumental track; it's not like Miku could be making those electronic-style sounds, right?

Then again, it was hard to precisely define what Miku was. Her never to be sufficiently cursed designer had been out for nothing less than a fully functional Unison Device in the style of Ancient Belka. I have no idea how he even thought it was possible to resurrect that particular art. Especially given that there are only two actual Unison Devices in existence that I know of, neither of which would calmly submit to study, particularly not for the sake of someone that was a complete asshole. And as a result, given the lack of information he had on the matter, he was forced to resort to modern, Midchildan style workarounds for the problems he was having. What that meant for Miku was that she was an unusual mix of AI, familiar, artificial mage, and Device all at once.

In this case, though, that solved one problem. Miku could directly connect to the theater's sound system and make it produce whatever music she wanted to back her up. Or even "copy" her own voice into the sound system as a backup vocal track; I could hear it going "la la la" in sync with the melody. And that's about when Miku herself interrupted my thoughts.

"One, two, three, four!"

The music really started to pick up after that, and I leaned back to enjoy the show.

* * *

As the last note faded out, I felt my own face flush with embarrassment. Honestly I wasn't quite sure whether it was my own or Miku's, which I could feel rolling over me through the link we shared.

_That song was about us, wasn__'t it?_ I accused, not sure whether to be amused or insulted. _No wonder you didn__'t want to tell me what the lyrics would be about._

_Well__… sorta…_

I just sighed. _Focus on the rest of your concert. It__'s fine; it was actually kind of interesting. We can talk in detail about it later._ I stood up as I said this, turning toward the nearest exit door. Before Miku could worry too much, I reassured her, _I__'m not leaving or anything, I just need to invite someone else to see this._

You see, while I had been listening to the song, I got that half-instinctual feeling that someone was watching me. It was actually kind of unusual, because if it was who I thought it was, he would have already come in to talk to me. That was odd enough to be worth checking out. It's not like it hadn't happened before, but still…

Needless to say, by the time I got to the exit door and actually opened it, there was no one there. Immediately outside the balcony seating was an upstairs atrium kind of area that overlooked the theater entrance, with plenty of nooks and crannies in which someone could hide themselves. And that wasn't even considering the possibility of illusion or concealment magic, which certainly existed in plenty.

So I just said, clearly and loudly, "You know, you're welcome to come in and join me in watching the concert. It's not like I'll bite your head off for daring to approach me or anything."

Message delivered, I went ahead and returned to my seat, just as Miku started her next song. And sure enough, about a minute into the song, someone came in and sat beside me. Taking my attention off Miku for a moment, I looked him over. He was that particular type that would be impossible to pick out of a crowd, with dark skin and a well-tailored suit. And while he didn't seem to be carrying any Devices, I knew better than most just how easy it was to hide one of those.

"Aren't there any flamboyantly obvious spies?" I muttered under my breath. "The whole nondescript look is starting to become obvious in its own right."

He just frowned. "How did you know I was out there?"

At that, I could only smirk. "I didn't. It was a guess."

That cracked his mask a little. I could see the affronted outrage written all over his face, at least for a moment. "You're telling me I got suckered by literally one of the oldest tricks in the book?"

"It's not like you're the first Bureau spy to be following me," I said with a shrug. "In that sense, it was a very well-informed guess."

"Fine." The one word came out almost unwillingly. "Do you actually have something to say to me, or…?"

This time, I turned to look him straight in the eye. That's how I work, anyway - forthright and up front. "I could ask for you to lighten up ever so slightly, but honestly I don't care one way or the other." He was starting to just openly scowl angrily at me now, but I just kept rolling. "I think that all our lives would be a lot easier if you would be as open and forthright with me as your job permitted, and I personally making a point of matching like for like, so to speak."

He interrupted me there. "So, you'll be honest with me if I'll be honest with you?" came the skeptical question.

"As much as I can justify, yes," I replied easily. "I don't expect you to tell me everything about how or why the Bureau's still keeping track of me, and I wouldn't share everything about myself or Miku in return. But I got along quite well with your predecessor, and it kept me from having to constantly watch my back all the time. Whether it helped him, of course, is more than I could say; you'd have to ask him yourself."

Given the look on his face, this new Bureau spy highly doubted that my relationship with his predecessor had been any help at all, at least from the Bureau's standpoint. Despite that open doubt, though, at least he was still trying to talk to me. "And the alternative?" he inquired calmly.

"I mean," I replied in a hard tone, "if you just want to watch me, I've long since come to accept that. I can't say I'd like having to look over my shoulder, but I'd deal with it in the end." He was nodding slowly, but I wasn't finished. "Try anything beyond that, like actually interfering with Miku and I, and the gloves come off." The slow nod froze instantly as I continued. "I'm not even going to ask what rank you are, but I was a C last time we checked, probably B by now. Miku's definitely at least B rank, and that's without using the ritual system, the power of which I'm sure you've been thoroughly briefed on. If you want to see it in person, all you need do is try to screw with us."

The naked threat hung in the air. By odd coincidence, Miku had just finished a song, and the silence seemed to consume the conversation we had been having in an instant. He merely stared at me, head cocked to the side, as if carefully examining me. I simply met his gaze, not giving up an inch.

Almost whimsically, he finally broke the silence. "I could have you arrested for threatening Bureau personnel in that fashion, you know."

"You could try, yes," I shot back without hesitation.

Shrugging, he stood up casually. "I don't have any intention of becoming overly familiar with you," he told me coolly. "Although I suppose I can take a rain check on the idea of trying to arrest you as you no doubt deserve." The manner in which he spoke suggested that he felt he was speaking down to me, which grated on my nerves, but I held my tongue for the moment.

In the next moment, he staggered, falling back into his seat, as the entire ship around us shook violently. Cries of surprise and alarm filled the theater at the unexpected disturbance. Even Miku's song slowly faded out as she, too, realized that something was very seriously wrong.

_Query the ship__'s-_ I started to say.

_Done,_ Miku interrupted me even before I could finish. _According to the data on the main AI core, this ship is currently under attack by unknown vessels._

A siren shattered my focus on the conversation with Miku. I suppose an evacuation alarm is designed to get one's attention, but I rather suspected that I'd be getting more accurate information from Miku, and the announcement that came on the heels of the siren didn't disappoint that expectation. "Attention all passengers," the automated voice announced. "This is an emergency situation. All passengers please report in an orderly fashion to the emergency transfer ports for immediate evacuation. I repeat…"

As the announcement began looping, chaos reigned in the theater. The audience down in the lower section began streaming out of the theater in a tearing hurry; it was severe enough for me to believe that there'd be trampled people down there by the time everything cleared up. Thankfully, that didn't end up happening. Meanwhile, Miku left the stage a little more directly, by taking flight. I just stared in awe (and a little bit of envy) as she gracefully flew up to the balcony, alighting next to me just as I stood up.

"Those unknown ships have stopped firing on us," Miku reported with admirable calm, verbally now that she was right next to me. "But they've also sent soldiers to board this vessel. From what I can see on the ship's internal sensors, only a very few people are going to reach the ship's evacuation transfer ports before the boarders do." She paused and then looked to the younger man who was just standing up next to me, as if she hadn't noticed he was even there. "Oh, who're you?"

Before he could answer, I did so for him. "Apparently Michael got recalled or something. This is our new spy from the Bureau."

"Oh!" she exclaimed in surprise. Dipping into a slight curtsy, she introduced herself gaily. "Nice to meet you! My name's Miku Hatsune, what's yours?"

The poor guy looked to be frozen for a moment in complete surprise. Not that I blamed him for that. In between the evacuation alarm that was still blaring out loudly, the supernaturally calm report of unknown boarders on the ship, the (somewhat unintentional) revelation that Miku was surprisingly competent at getting into the supposedly secure AI core of this ship, and an introduction that would have been more suited to a dinner party than a vessel in the middle of a hostile attack? It was a wonder for him to still have any sense of poise left!

Finally, though, he actually answered Miku. "It's Ken," he said shortly, causing Miku to smile brightly back at him. "Aren't you worried about this situation, at all?" he asked the two of us with a raised eyebrow.

"Nope!" Miku replied. "My master will figure something out! He always has before."

"You know I don't like it when you call me that," I objected with a sigh.

"Well, I mean," Miku stuttered, blushing in embarrassment again. "That is what you are, you know…?"

"Just…" I thought for a moment. "Find the nearest world we can set down on, and then start singing. The long-range dimensional transfer spell."

"Got it!" Miku confirmed. A moment later, an elaborate Midchildan style magic circle exploded outward from her feet, drawn in shimmering teal light of a shade to match her hair. "MRS, open!"

And yet again, she started to sing. From her original creator's perspective, this was what she had been created for in the first place: the Musical Ritual System. Similar in concept to a Belkan cartridge, the ritual system in general was designed to store and direct a greater volume of magic than a mage could possibly handle directly, allowing for burst output of energy far in excess of normal limitations. Where it differed from a cartridge style system was that it was an "open" system. A cartridge was a closed container, little more than a battery of sorts; whatever went in would be what came out. The ritual system allowed for the gathering of ambient energy, and then the amplification of both the original input energy and any that was gathered. Effectively, it allowed a pair of two-bit mages like myself or Miku to create enough magical energy to match any of the greatest mages ever, for however short a time.

That isn't to say it doesn't have its drawbacks, of course. Particularly, it requires constant attention. A cartridge can be charged and left alone until necessary; a ritual demands constant focus. There's also the need for a focus element, something to direct and shape the patterns used to gather and amplify energy, thus the musical part of this whole thing. And even with a focus element, those patterns are complicated almost beyond reason. Miku is enough of an AI to be able to process the complicated mathematics involved, and even then it requires her full attention. And a lot of the details were hard-coded into her from the start, too. Theoretically anyone could use a ritual system, but I haven't met a human being who's _that_ capable with the theory of magic to actually try it. Finally, getting the full effect takes a huge amount of time; a few seconds might get you a passable spell, but anything really big is going to demand minutes of preparation. In the middle of a fight, that's a long time. When I'm actually in a unison with Miku, she can hand off a prepared ritual to me so that I can use it while she readies another. And I made sure that the ritual could be interrupted, so that we can use a spell whenever we need it, rather than only once a song finishes. But that's the best we've been able to do.

With that said, I didn't anticipate any problems. From what I could tell, whoever had attacked this ship was entirely too worried about people seeing them and leaving unharmed. They'd focus on the transfer ports first to ensure that as few people left the ship as possible. Perhaps they'd even sweep nearby worlds for anyone that did get away, but that was a concern for later. For now, I didn't expect anyone to come investigate the theater in the next minute or two, and by then we'd be home free, no problems.

Well, one problem. I glanced over to Ken. "And how are you leaving this ship?"

He looked a little concerned. "I suppose I can try to hide out from them until-"

I cut him off with a raised hand, extending it out to him. "You're welcome to come with, if you would like."

"Seriously?" He stared at my offered hand as if he was waiting for it to bite him or something. "I'm explicitly here to spy on you, and you…?"

"Miku'd not forgive me if I just abandoned you," I said with a shrug. "Knowing her, she's preparing to take all three of us whether you agree or not."

Both of us glanced at Miku, still in her stage costume, that of a beautifully reserved princess. She couldn't spare so much as a glance for us, of course. Her eyes were closed as she sang, gathering the power that would get us off this now-doomed ship. I smiled slightly as I realized what I was listening to. It was the new song, the one that she had come up with the lyrics for, a beautiful affirmation of who she was.

_Don__'t ever forget this,  
__from here on out, I__'m in your hands…_

"Song's coming to an end," I observed. Even though it was all of the second time I had heard this particular song performed, I had developed a near-perfect memory for these things over the year or more I'd spent with Miku. And so I glanced back at this new Bureau spy, Ken. "Well?"

Ken sighed heavily. I think he knew what this would mean for his apparent desire to maintain distance from us, but even I could see that he didn't have a better choice. "Very well," he muttered reluctantly, taking the offered hand.

After that, things happened quickly. Miku let the music fade out, interrupting the ritual once she had enough energy ready. Her hand reached out, grasping mine tightly. "Ritual complete," she said in a voice that echoed strangely. "Dimensional transfer online. Activating."

A surge of energy caught up all of us, tossing us into the void between worlds.

* * *

Teleporting from one world to another is always kind of an odd sensation. I mean, probably ninety-five percent of the time it's something that's done aboard a dimensional vessel specifically designed for the purpose. And while there is a sense of "distance" in that space, in the sense that traveling from the area around one world to the area around another takes time, it's not quite the same thing as distance is in normal space. I don't fully understand the details; this is entirely outside my area of expertise. Anyway, normally a ship will ease into or out of the dimensional sea as "close" to a target world as possible. Done in this fashion, on the larger scale that a ship requires? Transferring into a world is a smooth process that usually goes completely unnoticed by anyone not paying attention to the view screens.

That's not what Miku was doing, though. This was an emergency teleport that picked out all of three people and roughly hurled them at the nearest world capable of supporting life. Really our only saving grace was that at least we were going only one way, out of the dimensional sea into a (relatively) close-in target world. The few times we've had to teleport from one world to another were… not pleasant. At least from my perspective. Either way, this was bad enough. I staggered slightly as the sensation of an actual world around me returned. The ground was soft and springy, doing absolutely nothing to help me keep my balance in the wake of the completed dimensional transfer. And then someone was pushing on me from the side.

Somehow, I managed to hold my balance anyway as the world finished tilting around me. The push from the side was Miku, who barely managed to stabilize herself with an arm around my shoulder, shaking her head to clear it. All the while, Ken just stood there staring at the two of us, with an expression somewhere between exasperation and amusement. He, of course, seemed to be having no trouble staying on his feet. It's always annoyed me that some people seem to just not notice a dimensional transfer no matter how rough it ends up being, and I've never gotten a satisfactory answer as to why it affects me so much when it seems that no one else even notices them.

"Are you quite done?" Ken asked with a raised eyebrow. "I'd kind of like to get under cover before any of the locals stop by to investigate the strange flash that we just created."

Calmly, I told him, "You're welcome to do as you like. As far as I'm concerned, I wouldn't mind saying hello, if there is anyone around."

That put another frown on Ken's face. Or perhaps I should say it restored the frown that seemed to be permanently attached to said face. "And if they've never heard of magic and start asking you how you got here?"

"Ken," I replied breezily as I finally regained my feet, Miku right behind me, "I haven't yet been to a world where they don't at least have _legends_ about magic."

At that, Ken started sputtering something about cultural contamination. I ignored him, turning to Miku. "You all right?"

"Yeah," she said a little shakily. "That… was about as fun as it always is."

"Which is to say, not at all," I finished for her with a smile. "Well, at least we're someplace new, right?"

As I said that, I started to really look around, trying to get an idea for where we had ended up this time. Our point of arrival was out in an extensive grassy field, flat as a piece of paper for pretty much as far as the eye could see. The sun was low, close to the horizon; the darkening orange color suggested that it was in the process of setting. Despite that, there wasn't so much as a single cloud to obscure the light, making it a picture-perfect day. Spring, probably, judging by the greenery and the temperature, and assuming there were seasonal variations at all, which there usually were. Which wasn't to say it was entirely featureless, of course. A few scattered houses dotted the horizon… perhaps farmhouses, although obviously we weren't standing on farmland at the moment, so maybe not. More immediately obvious, though, was the road a few dozen paces away. Well, I call it a road, but it wasn't a road in the Midchildan sense. Not unless we were going back thousands upon thousands of years, even before the days of the Saint King. It was a road that would have been laid using human muscle power alone. And as I followed that track with my eyes off toward the horizon…

"Is… that a _castle_?" Miku asked in a hushed, awestruck tone.

"That is what we seem to be looking at," I replied as matter-of-factly as I could manage. Which was difficult when you were, indeed, staring at a fairytale castle the likes of which no living Midchildan had seen in centuries. The details, of course, were difficult to make out from a distance, and we were probably several kilometers out still. What I could see, though, was spectacular. Soaring turrets spaced out along a massive curtain wall, a central keep towering over the entire affair…

Ken snorted, clearly unimpressed. "All that tells me is that we've found ourselves in a pre-modern world," he pointed out gruffly. "A fortification of that nature is meaningless against even the mass drivers of older days, much less even the weakest of Devices." He shrugged off the glares that Miku and I instantly leveled in his direction, turning away. "Enjoy chatting with the natives. I'm going to take you up on that 'do what you like' offer."

Miku's face fell in disappointment, but I wasn't surprised. "As you like. I assume we'll be seeing you around, Ken. And good luck."

The look on his face told me he didn't believe my words of encouragement, but he acknowledged them with a nod anyway before heading off toward the road. Examining his path, I finally noticed that farther up the road, closer to the castle, there was a fairly large forest. "Well, if you're going to look for cover around here, that would be the place to go," I observed, gesturing to ensure that Miku, too, had noticed the forest off in the distance. We stood in silence for a moment, watching him make his way off into the distance.

"He's… not Michael," Miku observed a little sadly, once he had gotten far away enough to be difficult to pin down in the distance.

All I could do was shrug. "Can't expect them all to be on good terms with us." I paused for a second. "I do wonder how he intends to find us again, though."

"Shall I run a scan?" Miku asked almost by rote. At a nod from me, she called up the basic utility spell. It wasn't complicated enough or power intensive enough to justify a ritual, after all. Just because I wasn't going to force him to stop keeping an eye on me, though, didn't mean that I had to make it easy for him. And after a moment, Miku mutely pointed to the cuff on my shirt.

I practically glared at the offending garment. "Seriously? When we went for the teleport?" The only time he had gotten close enough to get anything on my cuffs would have been when we linked hands right before the dimensional transfer, after all. With Miku's help, it was easy to pinpoint the thin chip that would have served as a magical tracker, letting him determine my location from… probably quite extensive range, assuming we were both on the same world. Idly, I toyed with the chip in question as I shared an exasperated glance with Miku. "He's going to have to get a lot better at this if he wants to keep up with us."

"I'm not arguing the point," Miku said, still somewhat forlorn. "I just wish he'd realize this whole game isn't necessary!"

I nodded. "Believe you me, I wish the same." Just as idly as before, I snapped the tracking chip in half, cleanly, and let the pieces fall to the grass. "But if he wants to play, he'll find I play to win."

That didn't seem to improve Miku's mood, not that I had expected it to. If only for that reason, I didn't let the silence go for any longer than it had to. "So, are we actually going to wait to see if someone noticed our arrival, or should we do something else?" I prodded.

"We should go get a better look at that castle," Miku responded instantly.

I locked eyes with my friend and companion, my Vocaloid Device. "Your wish is my command." She favored me with a slightly shaky smile, as I extended my arm to her. She took it with all of the grace and dignity that I'd come to associate with her, and we set off down towards the road and that castle in the distance. Together.


End file.
